Workshops

During the Multicultural Conference, students will have the chance to choose three out of nine workshops to attend for the day. Each workshop is led by MIT students, staff or faculty and will last approximately 75 minutes.

Family Expectations

Whether your family places expectations on you, or you place expectations on yourself … we all struggle with figuring out how to deal with these emotions that sometimes can be heavy. Join us as we share, discuss and learn from each other ways in which we can deal with expectations.

Unpacking the Model Minority Myth

La-Tarri Canty, Assistant Dean - Multicultural Programs

This interactive workshop will discuss the Model Minority Myth, explore its’ impact on the lived experience of Asian students and highlight ways that we can help members of our community navigate challenges associated with the myth.

The Un-Documented Story: Their story, Our story, My story

In this interactive workshop students will learn how the immigrant community has changed over the years in the U.S. and more concretely how immigrants have changed the country, MIT and their communities. Students will take a closer look at MIT and how it has affected the documented and undocumented communities alike and will walk away with options on what to do to support DACA or other undocumented communities.

The Makings of Your Masterpiece

Alyssa Joseph, Assistant Director - Multicultural Programs

Each of us are born with and have chosen different social identities that makes us who we are. Join this discussion about the importance of knowing what intersectionality is, why it matters and what we can do to create a community where everyone can exist in their wholeness - their masterpiece.

Reimagining Mental Health Care

This will be an interactive workshop. Together, we will share ideas and personal knowledge in order to gain a better understanding of how we care for ourselves psychologically and identify myths about mental health treatment. Workshop participants will help to identify what gets in the way of our best efforts towards mental well-being and we will also learn about the breadth of wellness resources for students here at MIT.

Classism Un-classified

Could the children of Ivy League graduates ever be homeless? Are only minority students going through food insecurity? Although it’s common to think so, the reality is that financial insecurity permeates various identities. Join us in unpacking the messy reality and experiences of the spectrum of students that identify as low-income at MIT.

Self-Care? Because You Matter

It is common knowledge that many college students spend countless hours studying, preparing for exams, submitting papers, and trying to balance the demands of academics with their personal life. MIT students are no different. In fact, MIT students set the bar for how many hours they spend studying, so it makes sense that they may intentionally or unintentionally sacrifice Self-Care in order to keep up with the demands, rigor, and pace of academic life. In this interactive session, you, as a participant, will explore the following questions: What is Self-Care? Why is Self-Care important (to Me)? How do I sustain healthy Self-Care habits and practices? You will create your own “Rule of Life” for Self-Care. Why? Because You Matter! Your Rule of Life is a verbal and written commitment to taking care of yourself in at least one, if not all, of the following critical areas of life: physical and mental well-being, spiritual awareness and enlightenment, academic and professional success, and social/cultural and personal welfare. One essential aspect of the session will be to challenge yourself to think about how you might cultivate these Self-Care practices amongst your friend groups and living communities, i.e., let’s create an environment that supports Self-Care. It’s time to Care of yourSelf…Because You Matter!

Since its founding in 1861, MIT has built a global legacy through promoting technological advancement, innovation, and social communities. However, a lesser known narrative is MIT’s connection with human slavery. For more than a decade, elite universities and colleges in the Americas and Europe have been examining their historical relationships to the Atlantic slave trade and human slavery. This fall, MIT joined this cohort by creating the undergraduate research course “MIT & Slavery”. In this workshop, participants will have the opportunity to both hear the research conducted by the four students who enrolled in the class, and engage in dialogue that addresses how influences from MIT’s connections to slavery can be identified in MIT today. Moreover, understanding the historical context in which MIT was created may provide insight into how best to create solutions to community concerns on campus.

Who are “We”?: Fostering Diversity and Inclusion at MIT

Sometimes in our efforts to encourage diversity we may create spaces that are inherently exclusive. What can we do to move past this? For example, how do we make sure our activism is inclusive and intersectional? How do we ensure our student groups are representative of the full student experience? And when we have different answers to these questions, how do we take these differences and build upon the existing foundations of student work at MIT? It all starts by acknowledging that the student body at MIT is not monolithic; we have varying needs, experiences, and abilities, and only when we bring each voice to the table can we have meaningful discourse on the issues affecting our community.

Emergency Resources

MIT Campus Police
(617) 253-1212 or 100 from Campus Phones

Dean On Call
*5PM to 9AM on weekdays; 24 hours on weekends
(617) 253-1212 or 100 from Campus Phones